CUP: At Texas, Christopher Bell once again finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
PHOTO: Luis Torres, @TheLTFiles
Christopher Bell picked up the 7th last-place finish of his NASCAR Cup Series career in Sunday’s Wurth 400 presented by Liqui Moly at the Texas Motor Speedway when his #20 Rheem Toyota was collected in a multi-car accident after 68 of 267 laps.
The finish, which came in Bell’s 227th series start, was his first of the season and first in a Cup Series race since April 21, 2024 at Talladega, 73 races ago. In the Cup Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 37th for the #20, the 203rd from Toyota, and the 706th from a crash. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 64th for the #20, the 436th for Toyota, and the 1,455th from a crash.
In each of the last two seasons, Bell has remained one of the Cup Series’ standout drivers, scoring a combined seven wins in that span. But under the controversial Playoff format, he was eliminated from the Championship Four in the penultimate race of the year both times, taking 5th in points each season. With the Playoffs now themselves eliminated, Bell has so far endured a hot-and-cold season. Coming into Texas, he’d led laps in six of the first ten races of the season, including a season-high 176 laps at Phoenix, but had yet to score a single victory. He arrived in Fort Worth after his worst stretch of the season yet, finishing no better than 17th in each of the last three races.
For Texas, Bell was among the 38 drivers entered to attempt Sunday’s 40-car field. He ranked 18th in opening practice with a best lap of 28.924 seconds (186.696mph). After pulling on track 26th for qualifying, he made a significant jump on his timed lap, securing the 7th starting spot with a lap of 28.353 seconds (190.456mph).
Securing the 38th and final starting spot was Austin Dillon, whose #3 Bass Pro Shops / Winchester AA White Flyer Chevrolet pulled behind the wall early in practice with an engine issue, forcing an engine change. Dillon didn’t complete a lap in qualifying along with Bubba Wallace, who was sent to a backup car after his #23 Chumba Casino Toyota spun and crashed in Turn 2. The team finished wrapping 23XI Racing’s backup car, which featured white accents on the car’s nose instead of Wallace’s green. As with other backup car wraps on the NextGen car, Wallace’s left some matte gray accents on the front fenders, roof rail, and TV panel.
Since both Wallace and Dillon incurred redundant tail-end penalties, the two remained in the final two positions with Dillon trailing the outside line behind Chad Finchum in the #66 Cooper & Hunter Ford and Wallace to his inside. “Appreciate all the hard work,” said Wallace. “Long week, long day yesterday - let's go have some fun.” Prior to the start, Dillon was told, perhaps jokingly, that Wallace was going to shove him into Turn 1 at the start. Instead, Wallace inched ahead of Dillon at the stripe, moving Dillon to last, 3.270 seconds back of the lead to Wallace’s 3.251. Dillon then pulled low behind Wallace as both cleared Finchum to their outside entering Turn 1. By the start of Lap 2, Finchum was already a half-second back of Dillon.
Over the next few laps, Finchum gradually lost more ground to the field. By Lap 5, when Austin Dillon passed Cody Ware, whose #51 Parts Plus / Costa Oil Chevrolet now held 37th, Finchum was 10.801 seconds back of the lead. On Lap 7, Finchum had fallen 15.194 seconds back of the lead, nearly three full seconds back of Ware. By Lap 13, Ware had himself lost nearly a full second to 36th-place Dillon and Finchum was now 22.914 seconds back of the lead. Heading into Turn 1 on Lap 19, race leader Carson Hocevar rushed past on Finchum’s outside, bringing Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe with him.
Finchum remained in last on Lap 32, when Bell elected to make his first pit stop on the early side of the window. He didn’t take the last spot, but Riley Herbst did on Lap 36 after pitting his #35 FRE Nicotine Pouches Toyota. That same time by, new race leader Hamlin rushed past Finchum halfway down the backstretch, putting Finchum a second lap down. But Hamlin’s hand was already out his window, signaling his own green-flag stop. This let Finchum by in Turn 4, keeping him one lap down. Finchum made his first stop on Lap 40, retaking the last spot, only to be caught speeding in Section 1, forcing a pass-through.
Finchum was three laps down on Lap 42, but suddenly the car felt like it was “darty” and “wandering,” like “it has a mind of its own.” On Lap 52, he lost a fourth lap making a stop for right-side tires. Then, three laps after that, Finchum was off the pace entering Turn 1, forcing him to the apron. As team owner Carl Long confirmed over the radio, this was the same car Finchum drove at Bristol when it had a similar issue in the opening laps, forcing an extended stay behind the garage area. Since that race, the team had replaced both the steering rack and the transaxle, but the similar handling issue persisted.
Finchum’s crew looked under the hood on Lap 56, then had issues replacing the hood pins before sending him on track. He returned to the track on Lap 60, now ten laps down, and incurred another penalty for the crew coming over the wall too soon. Long said if these repairs didn’t fix the issue that he should go to the garage. Back on track, Finchum answered, “No, we’ve gotta look at this thing – it’s still doing it.” And so, on Lap 64, Finchum went behind the wall and into the garage for additional repairs. In the garage, Finchum reported, “It was fine going down the frontstretch, then it felt darty into (Turn 1), and I had to put another turn in the wheel, and it felt darty down the back straightaway. . .it just happened like a light switch.” Long made a wedge change to Finchum’s car, putting a half-round in the left-rear and taking a half out of the right-rear.
Meanwhile, up front, Bell had led 22 laps after the pit stops cycled through after his early stop. By Lap 67, teammate Denny Hamlin had caught him, and the two were side-by-side for the lead on Lap 68. But coming off Turn 4, Hamlin suddenly slowed as Todd Gilliland spun his #34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford while racing Michael McDowell’s #71 Modo Casino Chevrolet. Bell pulled ahead of Hamlin, trying to shoot the gap, and nearly cleared Gilliland. But Gilliland’s right-front just clipped Bell’s right-front fender, sending Bell into a spin. Bell then smacked the frontstretch wall with the right side, knocking both right-side tires flat as he limped back to pit road. He pulled behind the wall on Lap 70 – just as Finchum’s crew was completing repairs on the #66. On Lap 72, Finchum re-fired his engine and returned to the track 19 laps down. Moments later, Bell’s team radioed, “We’re done.” “Dang it.” NASCAR confirmed Bell the first car out on Lap 76, and his on-board camera was shut off on Lap 80.
On Lap 77, Finchum returned to pit road, saying his car was still “rolling over in the corner.” Informed that Bell was out of the race, the team aimed to get past Bell, but didn’t want to risk tearing up the car. So, on Lap 79, when he’d closed within 12 laps of Bell, Finchum went to the garage for a second round of repairs, including a change to the shock limiter. Finchum returned a second time on Lap 93, now 36 laps down. At the time, the caution had come out again for William Byron’s spin off Turn 4 in the #24 Valvoline Heavy Duty Chevrolet.
Just seconds after Finchum returned to the track, some of the leaders collided on pit road. Kyle Larson’s #5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet crossed the nose of Chase Briscoe’s #19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota, and Joey Logano’s #22 Discount Tire Ford ran into the right-rear of Cole Custer’s #41 Andy’s Frozen Custard / Haas Chevrolet, which stopped to let Ty Gibbs exit his stall in the #54 Interstate Batteries Toyota. Custer drove to the garage area for repairs to his car while Logano, stopped in his stall, was towed to the garage with a busted left-front fender and broken suspension. Logano was declared out on Lap 108 while Custer’s crew continued their work. This occurred three laps after Finchum dropped Bell to last place on Lap 105. Finchum said his car still wasn’t perfect, but was handling better than it had before, so the crew set their sights on passing both Custer and Logano, which he did on Lap 134.
Now Finchum set his sights on Ty Gibbs, who challenged for the lead early, but was spun into the Turn 4 wall by Ryan Preece on Lap 103. Gibbs cleared minimum speed, then puled his damaged #54 behind the wall on Lap 113 and was declared out on Lap 137. A still-struggling Finchum flirted with dropping below minimum speed of 32.0 seconds, but still climbed past Gibbs on Lap 150, taking the 34th spot. He ultimately took 33rd after Kyle Larson wrecked in Turn 2 on Lap 161, then went behind the wall on Lap 163. Larson returned to the track after Finchum passed him and both finished under power, Finchum out of the Bottom Five in 33rd, 43 laps ahead of Larson, who was just seven laps ahead of Custer.
Heim has career Cup race, Jones gets first stage win, and Zilisch turns things around
Sunday was a career race for Corey Heim, who led twice for 69 laps, the second-most laps led behind only race winner Chase Elliott. Heim made his final pit stop from the lead on Lap 238, and seemed assured of a Top 20 finish when he crashed on Lap 258, drawing the last caution. He finished in 31st. Also impressive on the day was Heim’s 23XI Racing teammate Riley Herbst, who finished 11th in his #35, marking his second-best finish of the season and best since his 8th-place showing in the Daytona 500.
The race also saw Erik Jones score the first stage win of his career when he led the end of Stage 1 in his #43 AdventHealth Toyota. At the finish, Jones finished right behind Herbst in 12th, ending a streak of three consecutive 23rd-place finishes with his best showing since Darlington. Finally, there was rookie Connor Zilisch, whose 16th-place finish in the #88 Choice Privileges Chevrolet was his second-best of the year behind a 14th in COTA, and ended a streak of four straight finishes of 26th or worse. Zilisch now returns to Watkins Glen next Sunday, a race he missed after he broke his collarbone during victory lane celebrations following the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race on Saturday.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first last-place finish for the #20 in a Cup Series race at Texas.
*The 22 laps led by Bell were the first by a Cup Series last-place finisher since this same race last year, when Denny Hamlin led 1 lap before he blew the engine after 73 laps on May 4, 2025. Those laps were the most led by any Cup last-place finisher since the previous race at Talladega, where Joey Logano was disqualified after leading 24 laps on April 27, 2025.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
38) #20-Christopher Bell / 68 laps / crash / led 22 laps
37) #22-Joey Logano / 95 laps / crash
36) #54-Ty Gibbs / 110 laps / crash / led 1 lap
35) #41-Cole Custer / 173 laps / running
34) #5-Kyle Larson / 180 laps / running
2026 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Joe Gibbs Racing (3)
2nd) Hendrick Motorsports (2)
3rd) Garage 66, Kaulig Racing, Live Fast Motorsports, Rick Ware Racing, Trackhouse Racing, Wood Brothers Racing (1)
2026 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (6)
2nd) Toyota (3)
3rd) Ford (2)
2026 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
